Alex's Old Home vs New Home

Well where do I begin? How about we start with Alex's old home and Brian's visit to the orphanage. He got on the bus at 8am and arrived back around 8:30pm - a very long day. It took fours hours to drive there but the nice thing was that he got to see the Chinese countryside. From the pics it looks beautiful. www.dropshots.com/saritawv
They arrived at the orphanage and were met by the Director. Brian does not doubt the genuine affection that both the Director and the Nannies have for these children - the only problem is that there is not enough of them for the quantity of children. The group was only allowed to go into one room - the room they say that our children stayed. The orphanage looks so big, you wonder what is going on in the other rooms. He was not allowed to videotape, only to take a couple pics. Some babies were lying on the floor as they did not have enough cribs. Makes you wonder what can be going on in the other rooms if they are showing us the best one. The pics Brian took speak for themselves. What you can't see is that the windows for this room do not have screens or glass, they are open. When it rains they push the cribs out of the way. I dunno. It broke Brian's heart and it certainly makes sense as to why these kids are so sick - can't really clean wood planks that well from one baby to the next and why they long to be held.
Afterwards they drove to the spot each child was left at. The pics also show the restaurant that Alex was found in front of. The restaurant is now closed and the building was falling apart. Brian said this was one of the hardest parts of the trip. Have I told you about these orphanage girls when they get older? They are rumoured to be the most stubborn head strong girls alive. I always thought that this was because most of them are only chidlren to parents who are well established and spoiling their kids. I just might be wrong. It turns out that something like 50 children were found in the 4 weeks span that Alex was found. Only 16 survived. The survivors are fighters and have an incredibly strong spirit.
So though I am glad that I got to stay home with my little love..........we got a screamer:) Alex screamed and screamed and screamed, pretty much from noon until 8:30pm when Dad got back. By about 6pm I lost my marbles and I am not sure who was crying louder - me or Alex. I had even broken down and borrowed someone's Baby Einstein DVD and tried that. I took her swimming - she stopped crying but it started to rain. I bathed her - she laughed but was very slippery for just me to have her in the sink. Believe me, if there was something I could try I did. I don't know what is going on. She is teething. She is her Daddy's girl. Could be either one. Very tough day for Mom. That is all I will write about that.
Off to Beijing tomorrow. I can't wait. I will post tomorrow when we get there. If anyone is wondering where I am getting the time to post......this is my only private time. My how my life has changed!